One Last Chance for Police Transparency in California

As the days wind down for the California legislature to pass bills, transparency advocates have seen landmark measures fall by the wayside. Without explanation, an Assembly committee shelved legislation that would have shined light on police use of surveillance technologies, including a requirement that police departments seek approval from their city councils. The legislature also gutted a key reform to the California Public Records Act (CPRA) that would’ve allowed courts to fine agencies that improperly thwart requests for government documents.

But there is one last chance for California to improve the public’s right to access police records. S.B. 345 would require every law enforcement agency in the state to publish on its website all “current standards, policies, practices, operating procedures, and education and training materials” by January 1, 2019. The legislation would cover all materials that would be otherwise available through a CPRA request.

S.B. 345 is now on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk, and he should sign it immediately.

The first is obvious: in order to hold law enforcement accountable, we need to understand the rules that officers are playing by. For privacy advocates, access to materials about advanced surveillance technologies—such as automated license plate readers, facial recognition, drones, and social media monitoring—will lead to better and more informed debates over policy. The bill also would strengthen the greater police accountability movement, by proactively releasing policies and training about use of force, deaths in custody, body-worn cameras, and myriad other controversial police tactics and procedures.

The second reason is more philosophical: we believe that rather than putting the onus on the public to always file formal records requests, government agencies should automatically upload their records to the Internet whenever possible. S.B. 345 creates openness by default for hundreds of agencies across the state.

To think of it another way: S.B. 345 is akin to the legislature sending its own public records request to every law enforcement agency in the state.

Unlike other measures EFF has supported this session, S.B. 345 has not drawn strong opposition from law enforcement. In fact, only the California State Sheriffs’ Association is in opposition, arguing that the bill could require the disclosure of potentially sensitive information. This is incorrect, since the bill would only require agencies to publish records that would already be available under the CPRA. The claim is further undercut by the fact that eight organizations representing law enforcement have come out in support of the bill, including the California Narcotics Officers Association and the Association of Deputy District Attorneys.

The bill isn’t perfect. As written, the enforcement mechanism are vague, and it’s unclear what kind of consequences, if any, agencies may face if they fail to post these records in a little more than a year. In addition, agencies may overly withhold or redact policies, as is often the case with responses to traditional public records requests. Nevertheless, EFF believes that even the incremental measure contained in the bill will help pave the way for long term transparency reforms.

Related Updates

Today Google launched a new version of its Chrome browser with what they call an "ad filter"—which means that it sometimes blocks ads but is not an "ad blocker." EFF welcomes the elimination of the worst ad formats. But Google's approach here is a band-aid response to the crisis of...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Privacy Office, and Office of Field Operations recently invited privacy stakeholders—including EFF and the ACLU of Northern California—to participate in a briefing and update on how the CBP is implementing its Biometric Entry/Exit Program. As we’ve written ...

San Francisco, California—Face recognition—fast becoming law enforcement’s surveillance tool of choice—is being implemented with little oversight or privacy protections, leading to faulty systems that will disproportionately impact people of color and may implicate innocent people for crimes they didn’t commit, says an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) ...

It should not be surprising that arguably the biggest mistake in Internet policy history is going to invoke a vast political response. Since the FCC repealed federal Open Internet Order in December, many states have attempted to fill the void. With a new bill that reinstates net neutrality protections, Oregon...

Last month, Congress reauthorized Section 702, the controversial law the NSA uses to conduct some of its most invasive electronic surveillance. With Section 702 set to expire, Congress had a golden opportunity to fix the worst flaws in the NSA’s surveillance programs and protect Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights...

President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address last night was remarkable for two reasons: for what he said, and for what he didn’t say. The president took enormous pride last night in claiming to have helped “extinguish ISIS from the face of the Earth.” But he failed to...

State agencies in California are collecting and using more data now than they ever, and much of this data includes very personal information about California residents. This presents a challenge for agencies and the courts—how to make government-held data that’s indisputably of...

It’s Spain's turn to take a closer look at the practices of their local Internet companies, and how they treat their customers’ personal data. Spain's ¿Quien Defiende Tus Datos? (Who Defends Your Data?) is a project of ETICAS Foundation, and is part of a region-wide initiative by leading...

It’s Spain's turn to take a closer look at the practices of their local Internet companies, and how they treat their customers’ personal data. Spain's ¿Quien Defiende Tus Datos? (Who Defends Your Data?) is a project of ETICAS Foundation, and is part of a region-wide initiative by leading...